Eric called me last week out of the blue and was hysterically excited. His prodigy machinist had been working in total secrecy to bring their finest BBSHD chainring to life. Apparently this new chainring turns the tame stock 46T BBSHD into a different beast entirely. Although I was skeptical, I still got on his website and ordered one for $55 (preorders are available here should be in stock by Monday). When it showed up a few days later I couldn’t wait to install it on my Phat Phuk with a monstrous SunRace 42T granny gear and tear up some snow covered single track.

This chainring went on in about 5 minutes without any of the hassles of trying to figure out how to space it out because of that darn intrusive chainstay. This has a downside, as the chainline is almost 2 cm farther away from the bike than the Lunacycle Eclipse ring or the Lekkie BBSHD Bling Ring. This means that the chainline will be pretty wacked out in the granny gear, but I tested it with a massive 42T granny without any issues.

Eric and his fiancee Ashley with their new baby, isn’t it cute? Look, his fingers match the death bunny skull on his cap. ‘The Dude’ is a worse dresser than I am. Get out of my plaid pants!

The 42T granny cog was a total overkill, using only the 36T granny with the 30T Mighty Mini I could climb any incline that I would ever want to climb on a bike. I spent most of my time in the middle of the cassette, which is actually pretty awesome because that is the best place to be when you’re putting lots of power through your wimpy 10 speed drive chain. It felt like the Mini trimmed a few mph off my top speed, although riding in the woods you would never notice. When moving at over 25mph the pedal cadence with an 11T cog was way too fast to even think of trying to keep up with.

Like its big brother the Eclipse the Mighty Mini is truly a work of functional art.

The BBSHD is geared from the factory totally wrong in my opinion. The BBSHD was designed with a maximum pedal cadence of over 150RPM. No one except maybe The Flash can pedal that fast and the optimal pedaling cadence for normal humans is much closer to about 60RPM. If I had designed the BBSHD for Bafang, I would have made the maximum motor cadence around 100RPM and geared everything way lower so it would have much more power at the lower RPMs.

Part of the genius is that this chain ring is that it can be made out of the cutout for the larger Luna Eclipse Rings so that the expensive 7075 grade aluminum doesn’t go to waste

With the Mighty Mini you really begin to realize that this motor really comes to life at extremely high RPM cadences that are not achievable with a 46T or even a 42T chainring like the Luna Eclipse or the Lekkie BBSHD Bling Ring.

Size isn’t everything, just ask Yoda. There’s some serious power in a small package.

The trick with mid drive motor design is to match the optimal power output from the motor with the optimal cadence speed of your average cyclist. Right now the optimal power out of the BBSHD I would guess to be somewhere around 100-125RPM. The Mighty Mini lets you gear your bike way down and stay in the optimal motor RPMs to give you the ride of your life (but forget about being able to pedal that fast, not gonna happen).

You can see that this chainring does not wrap around the secondary reduction gear housing. Expect your chain line to move about 2 cm away from the bike.

Is 30T the optimum ring size? I think that 34T would be a better size as you would get some of that lost top speed back and still have plenty of torque. Almost all of my BBS02’s use a 34T Raceface Narrow\Wide chainring on an a BCD104 adapter. I found the Mini to be a much better solution for a small chainring than using a BCD104 adapter and a Raceface chainring is, and it is much cheaper at only $55 as well.

At 74grams the Mighty Mini is the lightest chain ring you will ever find for the BBSHD

For people who are commuting they may find that the Mighty Mini is a little too small for them. It keeps their pedaling cadences at speeds of over 20mph a little too high for comfort. For hooligans riding single track trails this chain ring is the one to have hands down. It is lighter than anything else and gives your BBSHD massive amounts of power that you simply cannot access with a 42T or larger chain wheel. When you keep the motor down in the 100-150RPM range it’s just pure snow-flinging fun.

You can see how unobtrusive the Mighty Mini is on this shiny electric fat bike by ES member Liv2ryde which is much cleaner than anything I will ever own.

With my 5″ actual tired Phat Phuk I find that riding in 5 inches of powder is eerily reminiscent of downhill skiing in the woods, which I did obsessively for over 10 years. The motor is nearly silent and the bike slips this way and that as you roll over the snowdrifts. It feels like everything is right in the world and as you focus down and pick your line through the trees all the stupid, superficial reality falls away and all that is left is … peace.

Ride on.

That’s more my style, anyone wanna buy any of my fat bikes? I didn’t think so. How about a 15-year-old minivan with spray paint all over it and 230,000 miles? No?

I got my BBSHD fat bike build (including the Mighty Mini chainring) done last night, and have ridden it, oh, call it 20ish miles. Some of that with panniers and a few groceries. This is with a standard 32-11 10 speed set of cogs.

Unloaded, yeah, the BBSHD/Mighty Mini combination will happily spin at speeds that are impossible to pedal with, even at low assist levels. Start throwing extra weight and resistance on there in a combination of cargo, hills, and headwinds, and it seems to settle down a bit.

I readily admit that this is my first ebike, and I haven’t even ridden it all that much. I may be completely out of line here, That said, the above makes me suspect that the BBSHD/Mighty Mini combo may actually be most advantageous for cargo bikes and loaded touring/trekking applications. Situations where you can use all that torque to keep heavy(er) loads moving at moderate speeds rather than moving lighter loads at high speeds.

Yes, like I said in the article repeatedly, if you want to pedal along with the bike at high speeds it’s not the ring for you. In the woods I almost never go over 15mph and I love the insane torque. I think a 34T would be a winner, winner chicken dinner.

I ordered a fat bike from Luna, and it comes with the Might Mini. My main application will be hauling the kids behind me in a double kid carrier. I’m thinking the Might Mini will be perfect for this application. Like you, I have absolutely no experience with this stuff. The extent of my knowledge with bikes is attaching a front wheel. So I’m really excited to get this from Luna and learn as I go. I went all in with a full suspension bike, BBSHD, and big battery. It’s going to be sweet!

What about chain length? Curious to know after going to a larger chain ring than the factory installed chain ring….would the chain length need to be adjusted? I’m talking from 36T to 42T.

A little info on me is I’m definitely new to electric cycles. I have 2 fat bikes in my arsenal and one is getting electrified (pun intended) when I get home from deployment. The Surly Moonlander Ops that I’m currently riding in Kuwait. Back home and garage unit stored is the far less expensive Mongoose Dolomite(the current 36T candidate).

Already in transit to my house is the BBSHD 1000W kit which comes with their aluminum 42T chain ring. So will I need to adjust my chain size?

Hi Karl,
Based on your enthusiasm I included the mity mini in my order of a BBSHD kit. I also included a SRAM DD3 IGH 3 speed hub with shifter. I have read that the three speeds afforded by the IGH are enough for single track and riding the woods. Also how with the 30 tooth to best deal with the rear gear ( single ? ) how many tooth, or ? Your opinion please.
Fil

I would just use the cog that the SRAM comes with. Anything from 15T to 18T should be fine with a 30T in the front. If you’re going to ride through deep powder then you would want the bigger cog, if you want it to have a higher top speed go with the 15T.